Many years ago when I first got out of college and was living at home I worked for three weeks as a bridge tender on the Hylebos Bridge.
Big ships came through the waterway, under a tug, not on their own power. Basically, if you told the Tug on the marine radio that you’d have the bridge open you better have it open because after that point they wouldn’t be able to stop the ship’s movement and would crash into the structure.
In the video it’s lucky the bridge didn’t need to go very high. ON my bridge, if a full opening was needed, the huge space where the counterweight would go would be completely filled and would crush anyone dumb enough to be down there.
